Archive for the ‘Celebrity Deaths and Funerals’ Category

Today, October 19, 2017, it has been one-hundred years since the tragic death of silent film child actress Pauline Flood, also-known-as “Baby Sunshine.” Little Pauline was almost two years old when, while playing on the Universal Studios lot, she crawled in front of a moving truck. She died shortly afterward at Hollywood Receiving Hospital.

Pauline, born on December 1, 1915, was the daughter of James and Ethel (Kolble) Flood. As “Baby Sunshine,” she apparently appeared in at least nine films, but Imdb has no record of her work. Variety said at the time that she was known as the “tiniest star in films.” Another source cited her tragic death as “…the youngest celebrity ever to have been killed by a car.” Regrettably, there are no known photographs of her.

Pauline Flood’s death certificate (click on image to enlarge)

Pauline is buried at Rosedale in Section 7 (Lot 1, Grave 2N-2W) in a section reserved for children. Her grave is reported to be unmarked.

Within three months, Pauline’s father James, died from diabetes on January 9, 1918, and wasburied at Rosedale. He was 49.

Pauline’s mother, Ethel, who was 28 at the time, remarried and died from tuberculosis on October 18, 1925–eight years (shy one day) after Pauline’s death. Her new husband, John Ashbridge, buried her atOdd Fellow’s Cemetery.

If anyone has information to share about Pauline Flood’s life and films, please post your comments here.

He was lovingly known as “Uncle Carl” and the “Little Napoleon” to those who knew and worked for him. Carl Laemmle, Sr., motion picture pioneer and founder of Universal Studios, was the first of the movie moguls to pass away since the death of Irving Thalberg just two years earlier.

A German immigrant, Laemmle had only $50 when he first arrived in the United States in 1893. In his early years, he first was a package-wrapper in Chicago, and then a clothing store clerk in Oshkosh, Wisconsin where he eventually became manager and saved $2,000.

In 1906 he returned to Chicago and opened a 5 and 10-cent store where he happened to behold a line of people waiting to pay their nickels to see a motion picture and decided to become a film theater operator instead. He named the theater the White Front and charged 5 cents, offering whatever crude films he could find.

From this he established a film exchange and from that success, went to New York where he began to produce his own films. This ultimately led to the founding of Universal Studios and film history when he sent a company to England to film Ivanhoe (1913) in its original setting.

Moving operations to California, he eventually purchased 230 acres in the San Fernando Valley, just outside of Hollywood, and here founded Universal City on March 15, 1915. His most successful films included Traffic in Souls (1913), Foolish Wives (1922), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), Phantom of the Opera (1925) and All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) which won the Academy Award for Best Picture that year. When talkies arrived, he remained president but handed much of the studios production to his son, Carl Laemmle, Jr.

In 1936, because of financial problems, most notably due to the overruns on the budget of Showboat (1936) and the ravages of the depression, Laemmle was eventually forced to retire, selling the studio to Standard Capital Company.

For the next three years, Laemmle maintained an office in Hollywood to take care of his various business interests. He finally ceased this activity, and spent most of his time at his home at 1275 Benedict Canyon, which was the former residence of producer Thomas H. Ince.

Laemmle suffered his first heart attack on July 14, 1939; this was followed by several milder attacks. On September 23, he went for a car ride hoping to gain some relief from the heat. Upon returning he declared that he felt a “little wobbly” but slept soundly the rest of the night.

Early the next morning he suffered two more heart attacks and his doctor was called. The third and fatal heart attack occurred while he was still in bed. Present at the time of his death was his son, Carl, Jr., his daughter, Rosabelle Bergerman and two physicians.

Laemmle was also survived by two brothers, Siegfried and Louis Laemmle and two grandchildren, Carol Bergerman, 9 and Stanley Bergerman, Jr., 7.

Carl Laemmle obit (click on image to enlarge)

Carl Laemmle’s death certificate (Click on image to enlarge)

Tributes immediately began to pour in. From Mexico City, Joseph M. Schenck, president of the Association of Motion Picture Producers, paid high tribute to Laemmle by issuing the following statement:

“The passing of Carl Laemmle was a shock and a great loss to the motion picture industry.

“Carl Laemmle was more than a pioneer, he was a builder. A kind, gentle man, he fought for the industry at a time when it was weak and shackled, and due to his courage and independence, the fight that was of nation-wide importance in its time was won.

“The whole motion picture industry must mourn the loss of Carl Laemmle, but in Hollywood where he lived and worked, his memory will be enshrined.”

That day, Laemmle’s will was taken from a bank vault and scanned to learn whether he had expressed any last wishes as to his burial — which he had not. At the time, his family was undecided as to whether he would be buried beside his wife (who died in 1919) in a mausoleum in Salem Field Cemetery in New York, but finally determined that he would be laid to rest at Home of Peace Cemetery in East Los Angeles.

Wilshire Boulevard Temple

It was also announced that Rabbi F. Edgar Magnin, the “Rabbi to the Stars,” would give the eulogy and read the ritual over Laemmle’s body, which would lie in state at the Wilshire B’nai B’rith Temple (Wilshire Boulevard Temple) from 11:30 AM the next day up until the time of the services.

As a mark of respect, at 12:30 PM on September 26, there was a five-minute period of silence at all of the studios in Hollywood, at the home offices of Universal in New York and at all of the Universal film exchanges throughout the world.

Rabbi Magnin intoned prayers over Laemmle’s body as nearly 2,000 of his friends and former associates listened at the Wilshire B’nai B’rith Temple. The ceremony was simple, as requested by the family. Laemmle lay in a copper coffin at one side of the pulpit, banked high with flowers.

Touching briefly on Laemmle’s rise to success from a poor immigrant from Germany to a leader in the film industry, Rabbi Magnin pointed out it was not the money he made nor the power he wielded but what he did with his wealth and his power.

A PORTION OF RABBI MAGNIN’S EUOLOGY:

“Many people are mourned after their death but not loved while they are alive, particularly those who have power which makes them so susceptible to hatred.

“But here was a man who was loved by all. He was kind and sweet. He saw all who needed him and never with a display of arrogance. He was always the same, sweet and simple. He never forgot he was a poor boy.

“He gave generously of his purse and his heart. His charities were widespread and of this I, personally, am acquainted. He gave to the organized charities but he helped more people in an individual way. He established a foundation and he took a personal part in it.

“He always gave to people who needed help, but he made them feel that they were earning what he gave them.

“He was a fine American. He was born in Germany and he always had a tender spot for the German people. He full well realized in the World War as today that they are victims of a government.

“His love for his home and his family was second to none.”

During the service, Laemmle’s daughter, Rosabelle, almost broke under the strain. It was only a few minutes after Magnin’s closing words that she was able to leave the temple and go with relatives to the cemetery for the interment.

Home of Peace Mausoleum

Carl Laemmle was laid to rest in a private family room of the Chapel Mausoleum at Home of Peace Cemetery. Universal Studios is still a major film company; one of only a few that still exist at their original Hollywood location.

CELEBRITY DEATHS AND FUNERALS

Fans, Friends, Family Remember Tony Curtis

The 85-year-old Oscar-nominated actor died Wednesday in Henderson, Nev.

Celebrities, fans, friends and family members said goodbye Monday to Tony Curtis.

The public funeral service in Las Vegas included a film tribute to the actor’s diverse career, The crowd laughed as an animated Curtis appeared in a scene from the television series “The Flintstones” and sparred with actor Kirk Douglas in “Spartacus.”

Jamie Lee Curtis, Curtis’ daughter from his first marriage with actress Janet Leigh, was among family members who attended the service. Jamie Lee Curtis said he was “a little mashugana,” using the Yiddish word for crazy, but always full of life.

“All of us got something from him. I, of course, got his desperate need for attention,” she todl the crowd of about 400.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recalled Tony Curtis as a generous mentor who encouraged his budding Hollywood career when others told him his foreign accent and name were too much of a hurdle.

“‘You are going to make it,'” Schwarzenegger recalled Tony Curtis telling him. “Don’t pay any attention to those guys. I heard the same thing when I came here.”

Schwarzenegger said Tony Curtis refused to feel old.

“I mean, who has the guts to take off their clothes at the age of 80?” Schwarzenegger said, referring to Tony Curtis posing naked for a Vanity Fair photo shoot in 2005.

Seven colorful paintings by Curtis stood on easels while a photo of the young, dark-haired actor was projected on a screen.

Curtis’ wife, Jill Curtis, eulogized her husband of 16 years. The hourlong funeral will be followed by burial and then a reception for 200 invited guests at the Luxor hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

The 85-year-old Oscar-nominated actor who starred in such films as “The Defiant Ones,” “Spartacus” and “Some Like It Hot” died Wednesday at his home in Henderson after suffering cardiac arrest.

Known for shifting from a pigeonholed pretty boy in the late 1940s and early 1950s to a serious actor, Curtis reshaped himself over decades of work and make himself impossible to typecast. The transformation was completed in 1957’s “Sweet Smell of Success,” in which he played a sleazy press agent who is manipulated by a ruthless newspaper columnist (Burt Lancaster).

In person, Kilroy said, Curtis loved giving friends and fans extra touches that made their face-to-face moments more memorable.